Mississippi Today (https://mississippitoday.org/author/kskinner/)
Kayleigh Skinner covers education, government, politics and how they intersect and impact the lives of people in Mississippi. She is also instrumental in Mississippi Today’s fact-check series and curates The Bell, Mississippi Today’s monthly education newsletter. Kayleigh has a bachelor’s in journalism from the School of Journalism and New Media from the University of Mississippi. She has been recognized as a member of the 2018 class of the ProPublica and Ida B. Wells Society Data Institute and a member of the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award-winning team. She is also a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Education Writers Association and the National Association of Black Journalists. Before joining the Mississippi Today editorial team January 2017, Kayleigh worked for The Hechinger Report, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal and Chalkbeat Tennessee. Her work has also appeared on PBS NewsHour.
Audit says if out of classroom spending “had been kept the same … over the last ten years,” Mississippi could give teachers an $11,000 pay raise. Education advocates say report is overly broad and not fair.
Yazoo City Municipal and Humphreys County districts will see their local school boards dissolved and replaced by the state Board of Education. Former educator notes poverty is a common denominator in the Delta districts.
Educators tell candidate for governor about the struggles to get certified, low pay, and the feeling that lawmakers aren’t listening to them.
Mississippi law explicitly forbids striking by teachers, who can be fined and barred from teaching in the state for participating in a walkout.
Despite their opposition, many lawmakers worried that killing funding for the scholarships would kill the bill, while others said it was matter of trust.
The legislation, now headed for Gov. Phil Bryant’s desk, also includes assistant teachers.
Final deal likely to be worked out behind closed doors near the end of the legislative session
The program, which provides students with special needs $6,500 per year to attend private schools, expires in 2020
James Henderson, the district’s superintendent, says tax bills would go up less than $100 per year. “Some of our parents pay more than that on a pair of Michael Jordan’s tennis shoes,” he said.
After seeing a steady decline in state support over the years, one of the top-performing high schools in the state and U.S. looks to tele-learning to serve more students
Educators would receive an additional $500 in the first year and $500 in the next year, costing the state $50 million annually when the raise is fully phased-in.
Governor, in State of the State speech, asked the Legislature to pass ‘a comprehensive plan to keep our school children safe.’
Critics say the scholarships are akin to vouchers and call expansion a terrible idea
More than a dozen bills were filed by Republicans and Democrats
The state Legislature has passed several laws in recent years to expand programs that allow the use public funds for children to attend charter and private schools.